T Decree XV. Hat this Bishoprick may in all things be conformable to the Cuftoms of the Catholick Church, the Synod doth command all the Members thereof upon pain of Mortal Sin, not to eat Flesh upon Saturdays, in memory of our Lord's Burial, but Eggs, Milk, Butter or Cheese they may lawfully eat upon Saturdays, as alfo upon all Fifh days that are not Fafts, and fince the custom of not eating Flesh on Wednefdays is not obferved over the whole Diocefs, but only in fome parts thereof, and that but by a few; the Synod doth declare, that albeit that cuftom is Holy and Laudable, and it were to be wished that it were univerfally obferved by all Christians, it doth not think fit to oblige People thereunto upon pain of Sin, fo that all that lift may eat Flesh upon Wednesdays. THe the the midnight of the faid day, and ends at the midnight of Monday: being to understand that in beginning the Fafts and Feftivities on the Evening of the former, and continuing them to the Evening of the latter day, they do conform themselves to the Customs and Rites of the Jews condemned by Holy Mother Church, in which days and their obfervances are not reckoned from Evening to Evening, but from midnight to midnight. WHO Decree XVII. * Hereas it is the Custom of the Univerfal Church, to have Holy Water at the entrance of the Churches, that fo the Faithful by fprinkling themselves therewith, may have their Venial Sins pardoned, and the Holy Water that has been hitherto made use of in this Diocefs has not been bleffed by the Priest, nor by any Prayer of the Church, the Sextons only throwing a little of the Clay into it,that is brought by Pilgrims from the Sepulchre of St. Thomas, or from fome other Holy Place relating to him, and where fuch Clay has been wanting, the faid Sextons have thrown fome Grains of Incenfe into it: Whereupon without any further Confecration, it has been esteemed Holy: Therefore the *oly. This Ceremony of fprinkling the people with Holy Water, is no lefs of Heathen Extraction than the wafhings con demned in the former Decree, as is acknowledged by the Learned Valefius, in his Annotations on the 6 Ch. of the 6 Book of Sozomen, Synod Synod doth declare, that fuch Water is not Ho-. .ly, and that the Faithful ought not to make ufe of it; and albeit that all the Earth of Holy places, and of the Sepulchres of Saints approved of by the Church, ought to be kept with much Veneration, yet that the Earth of the Holy places belonging to St. Thomas, has not the virtue of fuch a Confecration in it: for which reafon it commands all Priefts to blefs the faid Water, by throwing Holy Salt into it, according to the cuftom of the Univerfal Church, as is directed by the Roman Ceremonial tranflated into Syrian by the order of the moft Reverend Metropolitan, according to the Form whereof the true Vicars fhall take care to confecrate Water, and every Saturday Evening, or Sunday Morning to furnish the Water-pots therewith; and uponSundays the People being affembled,the Priest being in his Surplice and Stole, but without his Planet, shall before he begins Mafs, fprinkle the whole Congregation, repeating the Antiphona, and the Prayer contained in the faid Ceremonial: and at Maffes at which the Deacon and Sub-Deacon officiate, the Deacon may repeat the Antiphona, but the Prayer fhall always be faid by the Prieft. The Vicars must also instruct the People at their entring into the. Church, to take Holy Water and bless them-. 1 felves therewith, in the form of a Crofs, and to give over the faying the Prayer to the impious Heretick Neftorius, which they used to do when they took Holy Water as they entred into the Church, the Synod condemning the fame as Heretical and Blafphemous. A a 4 Decree Decree XVIII. Whereas the greatest part of the People of this Bishoprick are not inftructed in the Dorine, and they that are, know only the Pater Nofter, and Ave Mary in the Syrian Tongue, which they do not understand, and most of the Children know not how to blefs themselves, nay the Clergy themselves are ignorant thereof, not being able to fay the Commandments; therefore the Synod doth command, that in all Parish Churches in the Morning and Evening, as the Vicar fhall think mcft convenient, one of the Boys or the Bell-man fhall ring the little Bell to call the Boys and Girls together in the Church, where being aflembled, the Vicar, or feme other Clergyman that he fhall appoint, hall inftruct them in the Doctrine, that is to say, the Sign of the Cross, the Pater Nofter, Ave Mary, the Creed, and the Commandments of God, and the Church, the Articles of Faith, and other Chriftian Doctrines in the Malabar Tongue, that fo all may understand them, and not in the Syrian, which the People do not understand, it being the custom of the Church to teach the Do&rine to Children, and to the People in their Mother Tongue, and furthermore upon all Sundays and Holydays, either before or after Mass, the Vicar fhall teach the faid Doctrine in the Congregation, that fo all may be instructed therein, and fhall alfo after having called the people toge together with a Bell, teach it on the Evenings of Sundays, and as for the Churches that are in the Heaths, the Vicars fhall give orders that the Children, or at least fuch of them as are nighest to the Church, fhall upon a certain day of the Week come to learn the Doctrine, employing others perfons to inftruct the reft therein, and the Schoolmasters that teach Syrian, or that teach to read and write, fhall every day before they begin School repeat the faid Doctrine to their Scholars in Malabar, neither fhall any inferior Orders, no not the firft Tonfure, be given to Children before they can fay the whole Dorine in Malabar, in which they must be examined according to the Holy Council of Trent, and in all Churches there fhall be a Book of the * Do rine in the Malabar Tongue, for the inftruction of Children: which the Synod doth entreat the Father Rector, of the College of Jefuits of Vaipicotta, to order to be tranflated by fome of that College, commanding all the Churches of this Diocess, as alfo exhorting all the Chriftians. * Dotrine. ] The Chriftians of Malabar would certainly lofe the fecond Commandment, by receiving this Roman Doctrine, in which that Commandment never appears, no not as part of the first, nay in the Tridentine Catechifm, tho' writ in Latin, and for the ufe of Parish-Priests, there is only the three firft words of it mentioned, and I do not believe there is one Prieft of a thousand in Spain or Portugal, who if they fhould have the whole Second Commandment repeated to them would not fay, what I have heard more than one, and those very grave Priefts too, fay of it, That it might be John Calvin's, but they were fare it was none of God's Commandments. thereof |
